Question: "Is Jesus God? Did Jesus ever claim to be God?"
Answer: The Bible never records Jesus saying the precise words, “I am God.” That does not mean, however, that He did not proclaim that He is God. Take for example Jesus’ words in
John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” We need only to look at the Jews’ reaction to His statement to know He was claiming to be God. They tried to stone Him for this very reason: “You, a mere man, claim to be God” (
John 10:33). The Jews understood exactly what Jesus was claiming—deity. When Jesus declared, “I and the Father are one,” He was saying that He and the Father are of one nature and essence.
John 8:58 is another example. Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth … before Abraham was born, I am!” Jews who heard this statement responded by taking up stones to kill Him for blasphemy, as the Mosaic Law commanded (
Leviticus 24:16).
John reiterates the concept of Jesus’ deity: “The Word [Jesus] was God” and “the Word became flesh” (
John 1:1,
14). These verses clearly indicate that Jesus is God in the flesh.
Acts 20:28 tells us, “Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” Who bought the church with His own blood? Jesus Christ. And this same verse declares that God purchased His church with His own blood. Therefore, Jesus is God!
Thomas the disciple declared concerning Jesus, “My Lord and my God” (
John 20:28). Jesus does not correct him.
Titus 2:13 encourages us to wait for the coming of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ (see also
2 Peter 1:1). In
Hebrews 1:8, the Father declares of Jesus, “But about the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.’” The Father refers to Jesus as “O God,” indicating that Jesus is indeed God.
In Revelation, an angel instructed the apostle John to only worship God (
Revelation 19:10). Several times in Scripture Jesus receives worship (
Matthew 2:11;
14:33;
28:9,
17;
Luke 24:52;
John 9:38). He never rebukes people for worshiping Him. If Jesus were not God, He would have told people to not worship Him, just as the angel in Revelation did. There are many other passages of Scripture that argue for Jesus’ deity.
The most important reason that Jesus has to be God is that, if He is not God, His death would not have been sufficient to pay the penalty for the sins of the world (
1 John 2:2). A created being, which Jesus would be if He were not God, could not pay the infinite penalty required for sin against an infinite God. Only God could pay such an infinite penalty. Only God could take on the sins of the world (
2 Corinthians 5:21), die, and be resurrected, proving His victory over sin and death.
The most important reason that Jesus has to be God is that, if He is not God, His death would not have been sufficient to pay the penalty for the sins of the world .
It's actually the opposite!!!! Jesus was like us. What penalty are you talking about. Jesus didnt "pay" a penalty. It was out of love.
The secret of the cross is love, the love of God and the love of His Son. Whatever else we many have to consider, let us lay down this foundation: The motivating force for redemption is love,
John 3v16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Romans 5v8 "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Gal. 2v20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Love is the reason for redemption. Love flowed first from God and therefore from the Son whom He sent into the world. Love cannot be and must not be reduced to law or considered in terms of rights and earnings. Love owes nothing to any goodness or merit in us. Loves comes from God who is "merciful and graceious".
The cross is a source of the forgiveness of sins. It is not a debt settled by due payment. It is not a substitutionary offering whereby someone is paid a price so that others might then go free. No, the cross is the means of forgiveness and forgiveness is an act of grace and not of the rights or earnings by the settlement of a debt.
A created being, which Jesus would be if He were not God, could not pay the infinite penalty required for sin against an infinite God.
A few things wrong with that, is that Jesus WAS a created being. Scripture tells us that. He had to be the son of God and the son of man. Yes, he was born a man with the same nature as us.
Heb 4v15 "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
2 Corin 5v21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
He had human nature; he shared every one of our sinful tendencies (Heb. 4:15), yet he overcame them by his commitment to God's ways and seeking His help to overcome sin. This God willingly gave, to the extent that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself" through His very own Son (2 Cor. 5:19).
Because of his human nature, Jesus experienced minor illnesses, tiredness etc. just as we do. It therefore follows that if he had not died on the cross, he would have died any way of old age. In view of this, Jesus needed to be saved from death by God. Intensely recognizing this, Jesus "offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him (God) that was able to save him from death, and was heard for his piety" (Heb. 5:7 A.V.). The fact that Christ had to plead with God to save him from death rules out any possibility of him being God in person. After Christ's resurrection, death had "no more dominion over him" (Rom. 6:9), implying that beforehand....... it did.
If Christ was God in nature and then left that behind and took human nature, as trinitarians attempt to interpret this passage, then Jesus was not "very God" while on earth, yet trinitarians believe that he was. This all demonstrates the contradictions which are created by subscribing to a man-made definition such as the trinity.
Jesus's mission was to save his brethren from their sins and in order to do that he had to be both son of God and Son of man.
He had to be Son of God because no man left to himself had or could achieve spotless rightousness as required by God as the basis for fogiveness. Perfection was attained by Jesus because (1) he inherited from his father a unique capacity for spiritual things, and (2) he was given unhindered access to God and he chose to accept it. Sonship of the Father conveyed an insight, an intimacy with His God, an unequalled knowledge of what was in man, fitting him eminently to be the Saviour - if only he chose to be so. Sonship did not make him sinless, but made sinlessness possible. And we see this in Luke 2v52, John 2v24-25, 5v19-20.
He had to be Son of man in order to inherit the consequences of Adam's transgressions, a weak and mortal nature "prone to sin", so that he might condemn sin. He had to be tempted in all points like us and yet be sinless in order to be the Saviour. Sin could only be condemned by one possessing the same flesh with its tendency to sin. (Heb. 2v14, 4v15, Rom. 8v3)
Only God could pay such an infinite penalty.
God does not pay any penalties. He is right in everything that he does.
Only God could take on the sins of the world , die, and be resurrected, proving His victory over sin and death.
Wow, God dies? God raised himself? You really might want to rethink this trinity thing.........
